This past weekend I had the opportunity to hike with my scout troop to an amazing place: Shirts Lake. Located to the southwest of Cascade in southwest Idaho, this is a fantastic location to get away for an overnight camp.
Link to Shirts Lake on Google Maps
Well, it’s fantastic if you are in pretty good shape. If, on the other hand, you weigh too much and are allergic to exercise, this is a daunting hike. From where we parked (just past the radio tower substation on the saddle to the northeast of the lake) it was about a 1.9 mile hike. Getting to the lake was nearly all downhill, much of which is pretty steep. We arrived at dusk, and wound up doing most of the hike in the dark.
Risky night hiking aside, getting there is worth whatever it takes. Here are some of my favorite pictures from this trip:
Shortly after we arrived at the campsite, I set up my camera to capture a timelapse of the milky way. Each frame is a 13 second exposure, and I shot a total of 300 frames. I’m still learning the best settings to use for shooting astrophotography, and the viewing was not ideal that night. The moon rose about halfway through this video, and you’ll see a very strong effect as the sky gets lighter. I also wound up with too much noise in the final video, as I had the ISO turned up too high. At any rate, as you can see I captured both shooting stars and planes flying overhead. Next time I’ll move farther from our campsite to avoid so much flashlight / firelight in the trees, and hope for better viewing conditions so I can adjust the camera to reduce the noise.
Enjoy!
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